NUMSA and SACCA condemns the BRPs at SAA for appealing the Labour Court decision
13 May 2020
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) are dismayed at the decision taken by the Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) at South African Airways (SAA) to appeal the judgment handed down by Justice Van Niekerk last week Friday, interdicting them from proceeding with unfair retrenchments at SAA. The BRPs filed papers yesterday at the Labour Court to apply for leave to appeal. On Friday we succeeded in our urgent Labour court application to have the entire section 189 process initiated by BRPs declared unfair. The judge directed that the BRPs must withdraw the retrenchment notices and confirmed that they must produce a Business Rescue Plan, before they can take any steps to retrench workers at the airline.
It is bad enough that for five months the BRPs have failed in their core mandate to deliver on a business rescue plan. They have wasted more than R5 billion which was given to the airline as post commencement funding, and they have nothing to show for it. Against our advice, they unilaterally cut eleven routes, effectively destroying the airline’s ability to generate further revenue. At the same time, they refused to terminate bloated corrupt contracts, which continue to bleed the airline dry. Now that they have brought the airline to its knees, they have the audacity to waste even more tax payer money in order to defend their gross ineptitude and incompetence and attempt to overturn a sober judgment! We condemn them in the strongest terms for this outrageous decision!
Instead of wasting the courts time, and spending monies which do not belong to them, they should be focusing their energies on delivering on a business rescue plan. We are of the view that this time, government must take a stand to protect the public purse and join forces with labour in order to oppose the gross wastage of BRPs. This court case is not just about saving SAA against a pair of unscrupulous BRPs. It’s about challenging the BR industry whose strategy seems primarily focused on collecting fees and stripping the assets of distressed companies, whilst pushing for mass retrenchments and liquidation, instead of rescuing businesses. This is against our interests as a country, especially against a backdrop of the shockingly high poverty and unemployment statistics. The judgment of Friday was a reminder to the entire industry that the mandate of BR is just that – business rescue and they have a duty to do the work to turn around an entity for the long term.
We agree with the Department of Public Enterprises that we need accountability for how monies have been spent during the tenure of the BRPs, which is why we demand an in-depth investigation into this matter. We are engaging with DPE on strategy to turn SAA around, and we are at an advanced stage, which is the work they should actually be helping us to do.
We remain committed to workers, and in particular, to our members who have put everything on the line to defend this airline against rot and corruption by the board and executive management. SiviweDongwana and Les Matuson are parasites in the true sense of the word whose only interest is to loot the airline and collapse it for their own selfish purposes. We will continue to defend workers against these vultures and we will use the little resources we have to oppose this frivolous legal action, in order to save jobs and livelihoods at the airline.
Issued by NUMSA and SACCA, 14 May 2020
